With the end of the month approaching i wonder if we'll see any more signings made, sure Naysmith mentioned somewhere that he would like to bring in one more yet, a full back. I hear he has also told one or two players they are free to move on.

Naysmith has certainly rung the changes. In all honesty it was change that was needed as the squad we had would have been lucky to avoid the drop. I am certain that once the new players get more game time we will be a match for most teams at this level. I for one would be happy to see another addition to the squad. I have every faith that Gary knows the type of player that is needed for the tactics he will use. It was great to see an East Fife team play with the desire they did on Saturday. No matter who signs I think the 11 that played on Saturday deserve another chance this week.

Totally agree. I think the bench was pretty weak though, Willis, Stoney and John Stewart add little, would be good to see Ross Brown back as well as Fash to make an impact off the bench if Smith is struggling.

Heard that a lot of the young guys have been told they can leave as the budget is being used for the new guys coming in,looks like the full time experiment is no more.

Would be interesting to know where you got this info from, as i would say you have got it wrong? The young guys that have gone/are going haven't made the grade and their time is up. Simple as.

So are you telling me the young players that are leaving are going to be replaced with other youngsters that are going to be full time......dont think so.

One of the club's youngsters Tweeted last night about him leaving the club after two years.

So you have no idea then, pure speculation and mischief on your part?

If they got chance to make grade thats fine but a few that have gone never got there chance. better off away and enjoy there game where they are wanted.
East Fife want to develop there youths they say biggest lot of rubbish ive heard
in a long time its about getting money from sfa to fund there first team

This is total and utter crap. The first team do not make any financial gain from the youths at all. All monies are given to the youths. Many other teams have done as you said and they have been punished for it. Ask Lee Murray, Brian McNeill, Robert Cargill, Nancey Liddell or Shona Cargill. (Apologies for those I have missed out).

The youths need every penny they get from the SFA and a lot more besides. Money is raised through sponsorship, general fundraising, the payments the youths at the lower age groups make and from very kind donations.

You obviously have no idea how much money is needed to support the system, but the SFA money alone is a drop in the ocean. There is kit, (training, wet, cold, playing, bags, a supply of socks), coaches wages (some are not even taking a wage), hire of pitches, referees, catering (sandwiches for every home game), buses, medical supplies, bottles, disclosures to be done, first aid courses, and a lot more. Coaches and staff mainly provide their own stationary, and fund their own trips when required to meetings at Hampden etc. The club washes the kit for the youths and the volunteers and kit men help with this. The current board are very supportive of the Youths and a good working relationships has now been reached.

East Fife have developed their Youths and at the Modern Apprentice Level the have a high success rate. They were told at the beginning that if they had one out of the original starting group they would be doing well. This is the success rate of many bigger clubs.

You also have no idea how much of a sacrifice is made by the guys at the top, Lee Murray has even driven the minibus on occasions when a driver has not been available.

You want guys to be given a chance, what you want the manager to do, try every guy out in a senior game and watch them fail. That would destroy their confidence and what would the fans reaction be, not favourable I think. Again the backlash would destroy them. Apprenticeships are the same all over, but football is slightly different. At a club the size of East Fife they can't afford to keep the guys that can't make the senior side. What I would imagine is meant by them being told that the money is to be used for new signings is that they can't keep paying wages to young guys that won't be in the first team. Doesn't that make sense to you?

You should really just shut up and stop spouting this rubbish.

I am Lesley McNeill, wife of Brian McNeill. My husband is currently out of the country and will also be posting his own reply, just to clarify things.

I believe that answers a lot of the rubbish printed as per previous poster , It costs £30.000 a year to run the M/as programme the sfa at this time and for the last two years pay the youth set up £20 pounds per week per player working that out in simple terms means we have to find £60 pounds per week for each player, the £30.000 I mention is what the youth set finds on top of the twenty quid the sfa pay us.
If it was not for the support of the club, sponsors,and many companies out there this would not be at all possible ,the hard work done by ALL the coaches who were or are still involved deserve the credit for making the last two years possible .
If the programme was a failure why is there poss four of the young men having their contracts extended as previously stated some clubs accept ONE in every hundred as being a success ,East FIfe have done way beyond their expectations on the first go at this
WE need to continue to home grow our own talent for the size of club we are
Can I also state all youth monies are totally ring fenced ,something the sfa insist on before the programme can even get started ,if anyone wishes to check this feel free to get in touch with me

Thanks for clearing that up and a very detailed report on what running a youth set up is all about. Mr Mcneil can post his reply but to be honest I wont be worth reading as nothing he says is true anyway thanks for your quick reply one thing i do agree with is how well lee murray has done. He sounds very honest and hope it goes well for him. anyway if everything is done by book there should be nothing to worry about but remember these kids are young just be honest at least

Lesley are we that bad as fans , that you think we would destroy there confidence, never once as a fan have I heard a fan rip into our youths at a game if the lads having a poor game , you also said about watching them fail , well Lesley how would you know that they will fail , as a fan I feel these comments from a directors wife are shocking.

What gives you the right to comment about honesty you have come out and said that the East Fife FC are stealing the Youth money. Brian always answers honestly and has done from the beginning, he has been praised for being open on this forum.
You can't even post under your own name with your poisonous rubbish. It appears that you do not even know the meaning of truth.

What would you suggest they tell the guys that they don't make the grade? " F**k off you are not good enough". At the Modern Apprentice level the decision is taken by the Seniors manager. Be sure to tell Mr Naismith that his man management is rubbish. They do not want to destroy the confidence of the Youths and usually find the guys clubs which are more suited to their level. Brian often tries to negotiate a wage for the guys, making it as high as he can for them.

I am astonished that a so called supporter, or are you a disgruntled parent? Can spout this rubbish. I was one of the people who started the youth set up some years ago. And as far as i am concerned we now have one of the best set ups outside the premiership and are used as a model by the sfa due to the hard work by brian and all the other staff involved. You say that the youngvguys are being replaced by first team, this alone shows you have not got a clue. The apprentices that are potentially leaving will be replaced by other youth players from our set up. The ones leaving will have been given their chance at reserve level, if they have not made it into the first team only means they are not ready and as you will have seen from above posts the club cannot keep them on just for the sake of it. Does our set up work? I believe so, just as ross brown, lewis barr, bradley grieve etc. All in the first team squad. What more do you want? Premiership teams in scotland cant get that return. Please lay off the p eople that ork their socks off to make it work. l would also say that brian puts many hours into the youth set up, and has done for the last 4 years along with robert nancy and shona etc all on a volentary basis. What is being acheivef at the club now is light years away from where it was just a few years ago. So instead of slating everything within the youths get behind it and support the near 300 kids ee have within the acafemy and pro set up. I for one sre proud of what has been achieved

The point that I am making is that if the manager, and it is always his decision on who is on the field, played youths on league match days and they got some stick if they were not up to it, it would destroy them. If a player does not perform at on a pitch they will get stick, if they play with the big boys they have to take what comes. When they are on the pitch they are not youths they are seniors and have to be up to the task. That's is not what the system is about, they go on if and when they are ready. If they go on just to be given a chance, as was suggested, they might well fail for whatever reason and that might be enough to stop them succeeding in the future.

So you say it is ok that that folk come come on here anonymously and call my husband a liar but I cannot come on using my own name and defend him, that would be double standards.

I think East Fife fans are great, I am one of them, and have been since my Dad lifted me over the turnstiles at old Bayview. Fans also deserve to watch the best team that the manager is capable of fielding.

Firstly as in every walk of life and as in every level of football people and players will come and go for various reasons be it personal, private or professional. Whilst we would like to give every player who comes through the Youth system at East Fife the opportunity to play first team football unfortunately this is not possible in the majority of cases. We would hope however that players who do not get this opportunity feel that we as a club have given them a firm foundation to base their football career's on regardless of what level they reach.
Secondly all money raised and all grants received as Brian pointed out are ring fenced and held in a separate youth bank account to which the senior club has no access. The First team do not benefit in any way, shape or form from any Youth funding.

Lesley, your comments are admirable and transparent. However, its best not to get involved with the troll who is cowardly calling Brian a consistent liar. These guys are keyboard warriors who will smile and shake your hand face to face and then knife you from the keyboard. Not worth explaining the topics on here, rather print them in the program and ignore the coward.

I think Fifey has hit the nail on the head here.

Brian, Lesley, Robert and the rest of the team, you have my utmost respect not only for your professionalism and commitment but your undoubted integrity in respect of the first class youth set up at East Fife.

I am confident others hold my view but of course I cannot speak for them.

Lee Murray driving minibuses? Lets have more of this!
But better still, perhaps more volunteers?

I think its obvious that "2 steps ahead" is a disgruntled parent. Sour grapes and all that...

Well done Brian, Lesley, Robert and the rest - you guys are doing a great job and don't get put off by a mischief making troll.

What about a few words of praise for I RONNIE who was first to expose this scandal. A fan who felt other fans should know the truth irrespective of the danger to him and his family. What he has written must be the truth because he heard it somewhere.

Thanks guys for your support. I know I shouldn't feed the trolls but this time I felt I had no option.
It's such a shame that folk feel they have to do this, all the good work is put in the shade. Brian works hard but prefers to stay in the background. Lee is much more suited to and enjoys being at the front, but they have all got down and did the basic work. Cleaning toilets, sweeping floors, etc.

Everybody works so hard through the week and especially on match days. Everybody runs about daft at times but importantly we all pull together. Nobody is above doing anything. The board, staff and volunteers work hard to help make it possible on match days, make it so that fans have a club to watch. You don't see this side. Tomorrow I will be at the club for 12.30 I might not leave until 7pm it can be quite a hard shift at times, often not sitting down if there are only two of us, or rarely on our own.

Please think before you speak and try and ask questions politely and then you will get polite and honest answers instead of all this animosity.

their their their

We should also thank the Tories for this as without Mrs Thatcher's YTS initiative we wouldn't have the modern apprenticeships we see today.

Lesley, Good to see you using your own name now, methinks the lady doth protest too much. Not so funny now hahaha!!!!

Yes I do post under other names but genuinely I am not hahaha and I do not know who is. Anything that I may hear that is confidential stays that way. And as I recall hahaha had a different style of writing.

Moderators you are welcome to confirm my statement.

Seriously what the fuck does it matter to any of you guys? top marks to officials clearing things up but it shouldn't have to be done in the first place? the club is the best it has been since I started supporting east fife over 10 years ago and its beyond me how folk can still come on here and have something bad to say? well done East Fife for finally giving us an interaction based club Don't let these idiots stand in your way, top marks

This is a fans forum as other posts show you can say anything i see people slating
the team managers and players but never see you all responding like this why are you all so defensive its what people are hearing as fans but good to see the record been set straight and up to people to agree or disagree.
remember this is a forum and you will find its not just fans on here but people very close to you and involved in club and people speak and word gets out ex managers coaches players also can say what they want as can be fustrated but the reaction this has caused is amasing to be honest Lee keep up the good work best thing thats happend to East Fife in a long time.

From Me too.

You never heard of punctuation you thickoid?

Driving the Minibus


Back in the early eighties I bumped into an elderly gentleman watching East Fife at Central Park. We got talking about football and he mentioned that he he drove the East Fife minibus. I got a bit star struck at this stage as I realised I was speaking to someone connected to the club but it was only later that it occurred to me that the person who shook my hand and introduced himself to me as Henry was actually a East Fife legend.

big man pointing out spelling mistakes...

You don't talk perfect English so why spell it? Arsehole

It was punctuation he was referring to and we all automatically speak with good punctuation, irrespective of what words we use, slang or otherwise. So, it is not unreasonable for him to ask the question.

All this because a youngster was let go ,what is the world coming too.

Think he was referring to "their" mate and not me

Had to have a good scroll back myself.

Come on moderators confirm Lesley was not hahaha!!!!!

My guess is that Hahaha was someone who is now working for east fife who has hair of a bleached colour variety....

You might be right.
A John Lydon lookalike?